This masters thesis identifies and analyzes the aspects and specifics of branding of an artist in the art industry, which is relatively different from the branding which we know from the corporate world. The first section defines the theoretical background of the branding and marketing communication with focus on those aspects that are relative to an art and its market specifics. Theoretical definition in combination with the outcome of qualitative research, which was conducted with outperforming contemporary artists and representatives of leading galleries in Czech Republic, helps to outline the most important factors and subjects influencing the artists brand creation process which is described in the practical part of this masters thesis. Besides the quality of the piece of art itself, the aspect of the strong brand is unquestionably increasing the value of artists production. Therefore, this chapter investigates those factors and subjects that have remarkable impact on the value of the artists pieces of art. The last section of this paper gives local and international best examples of contemporary artists with strong brand.

This paper will study the Art market as an investment opportunity. We will forget about the artistic characteristics of the market (history of art, aesthetic, technic...) and focus only on the business and economic aspects of the market treating art works as tradable goods. Our goal will be to determine whether or not the art market would be a suitable investment vehicle, offering some interesting outlook to investment diversification. This paper will pay a closer look at the recent financial crisis period, trying to understand the mechanism which bonds the financial industry and the Art industry. This will be the key to introduce an investment portfolio including Art as an asset class for investment. Focusing on the performance of such portfolio we will give some further recommendation on how to reach a better than expected performance.

L'euphorie du marché de l'art sous l'Occupation est aussi le reflet d'un afflux de marchandises issues des spoliations artistiques des personnes de confessions juives ou de tout opposant du IIIe Reich. Le nœud d'exploration de la présente thèse se place volontairement sur cette question. Elle propose une analyse des paradigmes d'un marché de l'art en période de guerre sous contrôle d'État collaborationniste. / The euphoria of the art market under the Nazi Occupation is also a reflection of an influx of goods resulting from the artistic spoliations of the Jewish community along with any opponent of the Third Reich. The main concern of this thesis deliberately places itself on this question. It proposes an analysis of the paradigms of an art market during a war period under the control of a collaborationist State.

Considéré comme une étude préparatoire subordonnée à l’œuvre finale, le dessin a longtemps été un objet de collection réservé aux artistes et à quelques connaisseurs. À partir de la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, ce regard porté sur le dessin évolue indéniablement. En prenant appui sur diverses sources (inventaires après décès, catalogues de ventes, presse périodique, correspondances, livrets et critiques d’expositions…), cette étude tente de déterminer quels facteurs contribuent à l’émergence de ce goût et de quelles manières il se manifeste au sein de divers Salons, sur le marché de l’art ainsi que dans les cabinets privés. La croissance du nombre de collectionneurs de dessins à partir de la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle constitue l’une des principales manifestations de la diffusion de ce goût. Nous avons ainsi cherché à déterminer qui sont ces « nouveaux » collectionneurs, quelle place est accordée au dessin au sein de leurs cabinets et quelles sont les grandes tendances de leurs goûts. Ces nombreuses collections qui apparaissent au cours du XVIIIe siècle réunissent plusieurs dizaines, centaines, voire milliers de feuilles. Nous avons ainsi étudié les méthodes de classement, de conservation et de présentation des dessins. Aborder cette question des pratiques quotidiennes implique de s’intéresser aussi aux nouvelles formes de sociabilité qui se développent autour de ce dernier. À l’instar du cabinet de tableaux, la collection de dessins devient au cours du XVIIIe siècle un espace de rencontre, d’échange et de formation. De plus, le XVIIIe est aussi marqué par l’essor du dessin en amateur, comme en témoignent les nombreuses feuilles conservées aujourd’hui dans les plus grands musées. / Considered as a preliminary work to painting, the drawing has for a long time been considered as a collection’s item only reserved to artists and a few connoisseurs. However, from the second half of the 18th century, this look at the drawing undeniably changed. On the basis of various sources (inventories after death, sales catalogs, correspondences, press, booklets and critics of exhibitions …), this study mainly aims at understanding which factors contributed to the emergence of this taste, and how this became perceptible in Salons, in the art market and in private collections. The growing number of drawing collectors in the second half of the 18th century, is one of the most significant expression of this emergence of a taste for drawings. We tried to determine who were these “new” collectors, which place was given to drawing in their cabinets and what were the main trends of the collectors’ tastes. These numerous collections which appeared during the second half of the 18th century included several tens, hundreds or even thousands of sheets. We thus studied the methods of classification, presentation and conservation of drawings. However, studying this issue of collectors’ daily practices involved to additionally study the new forms of sociability which developed around the drawings. Like the cabinet of paintings, the collection of drawings became a place of meeting, exchanging and educating ones’ self. Moreover, the 18th century was particularly marked by the rise of the amateur drawing, as evidenced by the large number of sheets which are conserved in the greatest museums.

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The dissertation explores how quality-judgments on works of art are created within the contemporary art world. The research starts with the examination of modernist art theories supported by the museum, and continues with the exploration of the impact of the art market on quality-judgments. Although the art market had already distorted the idea of quality, further contradictions and difficulties have risen within judgment-making after the 1960s due to the dematerialisation of the work of art. Art criticism should have been able to deal with this complexity, but it is demonstrated that art criticism is a subjective field and even if there is a universal theory on quality, it often fails when applied to the particular work of art. Throughout the dissertation it is demonstrated that although ‘good art’ is a subjective, power- and discourse-dependent concept, all art professionals seek something that is an inherent quality of the artwork. However, regardless of the existence of such inherent value, judgments on quality are constructed by and subjected to power-struggle. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The value of art is a critical concept in theoretical discourse. As a result, the high prices of artworks on auctions pose questions about the various processes of value construction and the status of art in these processes. This thesis adopts a sociological approach to the construction of value of art on South African auctions. This approach is situated within a socio-historical perspective, which introduces the various social structures and conditions of cultural production. The main premise of this approach is that a multiplicity of social and cultural influences permeates the art market, its processes and structures, and therefore the determination of value. This research therefore indicates that the value of art on auction is socially constructed. As such, the value of an artwork does not reside in itself, but is produced (and constantly reproduced) through processes that are subject to the codes and conventions of the art world. Within the context of the art market, artworks function as commodities for economic exchange. Since economic exchange is socially and culturally situated, the distinctive ways in which art auctions in South Africa (as a market intermediary) encompass certain social and cultural processes, is also explored. To asses the various factors that influence the value and exchange of artworks on auction, the study introduces the Components of Value Model. The Aesthetic and Historical Factors; the Supporting Documentation and Material Attributes of an artwork, as well as the Financial and Economic Factors collectively indicate that values are, first and foremost, social categories. The value of art on auction is therefore a socially constructed value. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die waarde van kuns is ‘n kritiese konesep in teoretiese gesprekvoering. Na aanleiding van die hoë pryse wat kunswerke op Suid-Afrikaanse veilings behaal, word verskeie vrae gevolglik gestel rondom die verskillende prosesse van waarde samestelling en die status van kuns in hierdie prosesse. Hierdie verhandeling neem ‘n sosiologiese benadering aan tot die samestelling van die waarde van kuns op veilings. Dié benadering is gesetel binne ‘n sosio-historiese perspektief wat verskeie sosiale strukture en voorwaardes van kulturele-produksie inlei. Die hoof premis van hierdie benadering is dat ‘n aantal sosiale en kulturele invloede die kunsmark se prosesse en trukture deurweek, en gevolglik ook die bepaling van waarde. Hierdie navorsing kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat die waarde van kuns op veilings sosiaal geskep word. Gevolglik is die waarde van kuns nie intrinsiek nie, maar word geproduseer (en aanhoudend geherproduseer) deur prosesse wat onderhewig is aan die kodes en konvensies van die kunswêreld. Binne die konteks van die kunsmark, funksioneer kunswerke bloot as kommoditeite vir ekonomiese verhandeling. Omdat ekonomiese vehandeling sosiaal en kultureel gesetel is, word die eiesoortige wyse van hoe kunsveilings (as ‘n marktussenganger) sekere sosiale en kulturele prosesse omvat, ook ondersoek. Om die veskeie faktore wat die waarde van kunswerke op veilings beïnvloed te ondersoek, word die ‘Komponente van Waarde Model’ ingebring. Gevolglik dui die Esteties- en Historiese Faktore; Ondersteunende Dokumentasie en Materiële Eienskappe van kunswerke asook die Finansiële en Ekonomiese Faktore gesamantlik aan dat waardes hoofsaaklik sosiale kategorieë is. Die waarde van kuns op veiling is gevolglik sosiaal gekonstrueer.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal. / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

A Tese na [da] Caixa Preta aborda o princípio de uma entidade exemplificadora de si mesma no dispositivo de arquivamento de uma escritura. Uma coleção de obras de arte contemporâneas brasileiras foi formada com o objetivo de lastrear a mediação e ação culturais tendo como base a realização de exposições e experiências envolvendo o sistema das artes entre seus aspectos formais e informais. Objetivos: Exemplificar a literalidade do papel dos sistemas artísticos formais e informais para obtenção de uma consistência entre a origem simbólica da linguagem e as variações surgidas na repetição [diferência termo de Derrida] conforme a lei do acontecimento [também de acordo com Jacques Derrida] e do poder retrospectivo de um dispositivo arquivante de uma escritura Métodos: Exercício de papéis diferentes e experimentais nesse sistema das artes: entre o pesquisador, colecionador, curador, artista, espectador, leitor e por último, o escritor [aquele que redige a própria experiência como o dispositivo que irá arquivar todos os resultados obtidos durante o processo]. Resultados: A coleção formada foi transformada em lastro conceitual para várias instalações e exposições artísticas. Os resultados da mediação e ação cultural entre os circuitos formal e informal do sistema das artes foram documentados, além da escritura de uma tese, em um DVD com o mesmo título: A Tese na [da] Caixa Preta que mostra [como matéria de prova], em três vídeos, as imagens das experiências citadas. / The thesis in [of] the black box is based on the principle of an entity that exemplifies itself in an archive scriptural system. Several Brazilian Contemporary Art pieces were acquired to form a collection which was used for cultural action and mediation purposes such as exhibitions and experiences involving the Brazilian art system in its formal and informal aspects. Objectives: To exemplify the literality role within the formal and informal art systems in order to have a consistency between the symbolic origin of language and the variations that appear in repetition [differance term used by Derrida] according the event law [in Jacques Derridas philosophy perspective] and the retrospective power of archival device of scripture. Results: The formal art collection was transformed into conceptual ballast for several artistic installations and exhibitions. The results of the cultural actions and mediation within the formal and informal circuits of the Brazilian art system were documented, beyond the thesis writing process [thesis scripture], in a DVD with the same title: The thesis in [of] the black box that shows [as a matter of proof], in three videos, the images of the above mentioned experiences.

Verdades e mentiras (Verités et mensonges / F for fake, 1973), de Orson Welles, parte da história de Elmyr de Hory, um grande falsificador de obras de arte, para propor uma reflexão sobre o mercado de arte e sobre o trabalho do artista no contexto da Indústria Cultural. O filme organiza-se como uma argumentação, que disserta sobre seu contexto sócio-histórico e capta a estrutura de sentimento do período em que é produzido, podendo ser considerado um precursor do filme ensaio. Entretanto, os argumentos nem sempre confirmam as teses propostas inicialmente. Há constantes contradições entre os diferentes elementos que compõem uma mesma cena, ou entre diferentes cenas e sequências do filme, tornando necessário ao espectador realizar uma leitura a contrapelo da obra. Orson Welles incorpora aspectos da tradição cinematográfica e de sua obra e combina-os com a experimentação, que é característica de seu trabalho artístico, para investigar as relações de produção no contexto da indústria cultural e de que forma o trabalho se constitui enquanto horizonte para superação das determinantes históricas da sociedade. Ao mesmo tempo em que faz isso, o filme evidencia a si mesmo como representação, constituída a partir de um ponto de vista determinado, e assim permite que analisemos e interpretemos a verdade desse trabalho artístico, para a compreensão dos temas e aspectos da realidade que ele configura. / F for fake (Verités et mensonges, 1973), by Orson Welles, introduces the story of Elmyr de Hory, a great Art forger, in order to discuss the determinations associated to the Art Market and the work of the artist submitted to the Cultural Industry. The movie is structured as an argumentative essay, which discusses its background and captures the structure of feeling of the period. Because of the way it is organized, F for fake is sometimes referred as a predecessor of what is called nowadays essay film. However, the arguments included do not necessarily confirm the initial thesis of the film. There are numerous contradictions between different elements of a scene, and also between different scenes and sequences. It keeps the audience alert and suggests the need to interpret the story against the grain, as Walter Benjamin advocates. Orson Welles incorporates some aspects of film tradition and of his oeuvre, and associates them with the experimentation of new aesthetics, as it is characteristic of his artistic work, in order to examine the relations of production in the context of the Cultural Industry. He also analyses how labor can represent some perspective of overcoming the social and historical determinations of the society. Whilst structuring these debates, the film exposes itself as a representation of a certain point of view, and allows the audience to analyse and interpret the truth of this work of art, as well as to try to understand the association of themes and aspects of reality that it constitutes.